ROCKFORD — U.S. Judge Philip Reinhard said today that although he believes a convicted bank robber’s statements of remorse are sincere, Michael O. Fryer’s actions Aug. 16, 2012, were so egregious, he could not let him off easy.

Despite cooperating with authorities to win the conviction of an accomplice and a U.S. attorney recommendation of a far lighter sentence, Fryer, 31, was sentenced to 78 months or about 6.5 years in federal prison for bank robbery.

In a well-planned bank robbery, Fryer had stormed a BMO Harris Bank branch inside what was then Hilander on Rural Street waving what bank personnel and witnesses believed was a semi-automatic pistol.

“Don’t be a hero,” Fryer told the tellers, according to his plea agreement. “Do you want to get shot?”

Fryer pointed what later turned out to be a BB Gun in Isaacson’s face and told him to get away from his truck. Fryer sped off and stopped on Highland Avenue where he set the truck on fire with a Molotov cocktail and hopped into another getaway vehicle waiting for him there.

He temporarily escaped during a wild chase with authorities, but was captured later that day. Isaacson played a role in Fryer’s capture by helping to follow him after the bank robbery and phoning in his location to authorities.

“I apologize to the bank tellers, the bank manager and everyone who was there,” Fryer said in court Tuesday. “I would also like to apologize to the entire city of Rockford. I understand that my actions created fear and terror. If I could go back, I would.”

Fryer told Reinhard that he suffered from an untreated mental illness, was depressed and traumatized by the death of a daughter during a miscarriage two months earlier, and was abusing alcohol and drugs at the time.

Since then, he has cooperated with authorities to win the conviction of co-defendant, Janell L. Holland, who was sentenced to six years in prison. He is also apparently cooperating on other unspecified cases.

Reinhard, however, noted that Fryer had heaped felonies — fleeing from police, arson and auto theft — on top of bank robbery, rand ejected a prosecutor’s request for a 58-month prison sentence.

“The court could justify a sentence above the guideline range, but won’t,” Reinhard said. “You come off as well-spoken, willing to undergo treatment for mental illness and treatment for alcoholism and drug abuse.”